Questions for Written Answer

Lord Jopling: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether the Ministry of Defence and the Northern Ireland Office will explain why they currently have 26 and 30 House of Lords Written Questions respectively awaiting reply of the 85 such Questions which have lain unanswered for over 21 days, when the standard period for replies is 14 days.

Baroness Amos: All government departments endeavour to answer Questions for Written Answer within the 14 day deadline. I regret, however, that it has taken so long to answer these Questions.
	The majority of the overdue Ministry of Defence questions relate to operations in Iraq and in many instances this has meant contacting personnel there to obtain details to be able to answer them. Clearly personnel on operations are subject to operational pressure which can result in delays in obtaining the information required.
	A number of the Northern Ireland Office questions have required co-ordination between several parts of the Northern Ireland Office and the 11 departments of the Northern Ireland Administration which has occasionally resulted in the deadline not being met.
	I can assure the noble Lord that officials in both departments are working hard to provide the necessary information and ensure that the outstanding Questions are answered as soon as possible.

Questions for Written Answer

Lord Avebury: asked the Leader of the House:
	Whether she will take steps to ensure that Ministers date the copies of Written Answers which are sent to Members.

Baroness Amos: My office has written to all government departments requesting that, wherever possible, Answers to Written Questions are dated.

Millennium Development Goals

Baroness Gale: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What assessment they have made of the relationship between the millennium development target to eliminate gender disparity in education and similar targets for halving the proportion of people without safe water or basic sanitation.

Baroness Amos: DfID's assessment of this relationship is twofold. First, access to basic facilities such as school toilets, safe drinking water, clean surroundings and information on hygiene all improve the quality of the school environment and influence better learning. This is important in terms of the overall goal of achieving universal education and eliminating gender disparity in education. Basic sanitation for girls in particular can lead to a lower dropout rate for girls, especially at puberty. For example, in Bangladesh, a school sanitation and hygiene education programme reported to increase girls' attendance rates by 11 per cent.
	Secondly, the opportunity costs of parents sending girls to school are substantially reduced when households have ready access to safe drinking water and girls are no longer required to collect water from distant water pumps.
	As part of its support for the peace process in Sudan, DfID has provided approximately £2 million to assist UNICEF's education programmes in the conflict-affected areas of the country, providing books and materials to over 2,000 primary schools and supporting the construction of water and sanitation facilities where these were priorities.

Terrorism: Interrogation of Suspects

Baroness Williams of Crosby: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they have sent any British citizens suspected as terrorists to other countries for interrogation.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: Under the terms of the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003, foreign jurisdictions are able to seek mutual legal assistance from the UK. This usually means collecting evidence (as opposed to intelligence which is handled on a police-to-police basis) for use in criminal proceedings or investigations.
	Individuals who have been charged with a criminal offence or have already been convicted of one in a different country may be extradited to another country provided all criteria are met.
	British citizens suspected as terrorists are not sent to other countries for interrogation purposes.
	Since 11 September 2001, no one has been extradited for terrorist-related activities.

Emergency Services: Sirens

Lord Thomas of Swynnerton: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they will devise an alarm for the use of the police, fire brigades and the ambulance service, which is less noisy than the present one.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The police and other emergency services need to alert other motorists and pedestrians to their presence if they are to provide fast response times and to do so safely. Much work has previously been undertaken to identify the most effective means for doing this. The sirens now in use are designed to operate in such a way as to attract the attention of pedestrians, to be heard by motorists in different situations and to indicate the direction from which the vehicle is approaching. They are often supplemented by the use of alternate flashing headlights. We have no current plans for further work in this area.

Gulf War 1990–91: Vaccines

Lord Clement-Jones: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Warner on 12 May (WA 45–46), whether any part of the Gulf veterans' illnesses research will provide information on potential adverse consequences of the Ministry of Defence's decision to plan the timing of the anthrax immunisations of troops involved in the 1990–91 Gulf conflict differently from that in the marketing authorisation and to give fewer immunisations than were recommended.

Lord Bach: Detailed information about the schedule of anthrax vaccinations offered to protect United Kingdom Forces during the 1990–91 Gulf conflict is contained in the paper Implementation of the Immunisation Programme against Biological Warfare Agents for UK Forces during the Gulf Conflict 1990/1991, a copy of which is in the Library of the House. The paper makes clear that the timing of the third anthrax vaccine dose was varied, and that the main immunisation programme was suspended before the point at which a fourth dose would have been due. There is no formal record of consultation between the Ministry of Defence and the manufacturer and supplier, the then Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CAMR), Porton Down about these variations. There is no association between failing to complete a course of immunisation and adverse health effects, other than possible failure to achieve full protection.
	Information about the vaccine schedule associated with the core study of the MoD's vaccines interaction research programme was given in my Written Answers of 6 November (Official Report, col. WA 140) and 18 November 2003 (Official Report, col. WA 280). The schedule includes anthrax vaccinations at 0, 3, and 7 weeks.

Gulf War 1990–91: Destruction of Chemical Weapons

Lord Morris of Manchester: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What consideration they are giving to the implications for British troops deployed to the 1990–91 Gulf conflict of the United States Accounting Office's new findings, published on 6 June, on the number of coalition troops potentially exposed to chemical warfare agents, including sarin and cyclosarin, from fallout from the destruction of the Iraqi chemical arms bunker at Khamisiyah in southern Iraq in March 1991; and whether they will revise their estimate of the number of British troops who could have been affected.

Lord Bach: The Ministry of Defence is currently reviewing the General Accounting Office report, and the Department of Defense/CIA responses to it. It is intended that the MoD will be publishing its own assessment of the destruction of chemical warfare rockets at Khamisiyah this autumn.

Geneva Conventions: UK Interrogators

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Bach on 23 June (WA 126), whether they are aware of any occasions when members of the British Armed Forces or other United Kingdom personnel have used interrogation techniques involving physical or mental coercion contrary to international human rights and humanitarian law.

Lord Bach: United Kingdom interrogators are specifically instructed that individuals being questioned must be treated at all times in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. We are not aware of any incidents in which UK interrogators are alleged to have used coercion techniques that are banned by the conventions during current operations.

School Performance Tables

Lord Lucas: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they will amend the methodology of the key stage 1 and key stage 2 value added performance tables to:
	(a) provide for sub-levels at key stage 2; and
	(b) provide for levels above 5 at key stage 2.
	to provide further details on the measurement of pupils' progress, notably the progress made by pupils who achieve 2A or 3 at key stage 1.

Baroness Ashton of Upholland: The simple and transparent methodology now in use has done much to put VA on the education map and help people to understand the general concept. Now these foundations have been laid, we hope to move on and develop a methodology which takes account of contextual factors beyond pupils' prior attainment.
	However, we have no plans at present to provide for sub-levels at key stage 2 (KS2). We would need the marks data to be more robust before we could consider incorporating these sub-levels into the VA methodology. Nor do we plan to provide levels above level 5; this is the highest level a pupil can currently achieve in the tests.
	The autumn package shows how pupils from different parts of the KS1 range are performing. This can be found on the web at: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/performance/ap/ 2003 additional/?version=1

School Performance Tables

Lord Lucas: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they will amend the methodology of the key stage 1 and key stage 2 value added performance tables so:
	(a) the arithmetic mean rather than the median is used to decide what a pupil is expected to get at key stage 2; and
	(b) a stability indicator is used that begins in year 3, to include junior schools.

Baroness Ashton of Upholland: We have no plans to change the present value added (VA) methodology to include the use of the arithmetic mean rather than the median. We know of no particular advantages this would bring.
	This year we will be publishing a mobility indicator, for each primary school, showing the proportion of pupils in the school for the whole of key stage 2, i.e. from the beginning of year 3 to year 6. This indicator, which will replace the stability indicator, can be applied to all including junior schools.

School Performance Tables

Lord Lucas: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether they will publish an indicator of the uncertainties which arise in performance measures in educational performance tables.

Baroness Ashton of Upholland: We have no plans at present to publish an uncertainty indicator in performance tables. The explanatory text we publish does, however, have a section on the significance of the value added measures and how to interpret them, alongside examples for different cohort sizes. The text can be viewed on the department's website at www.dfes.gov.uk/performancetables

Northern Ireland Judiciary

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answers by the Lord Filkin on 15 June (WA 61–62) whether the personal information requested is in the Lord Chancellor's possession; and, if so, why is it not being released, considering that the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission will be required by statute to publish such information.

Lord Filkin: It would not be appropriate for the Lord Chancellor to release personal information held in relation to individual members of the judiciary or statistical information from which the identity of any person could be readily ascertained.
	Under Schedule 2 to the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002, the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission will be required to ensure that information published must not identify any person or include information from which the identity of any person could be readily ascertained.

Northern Ireland Judiciary

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answers by the Lord Filkin on 15 June (WA 61–62) whether the senior judiciary in Northern Ireland is reflective of the community there; if so, when it became reflective of the community; and, if it is not, when they expect the senior judiciary to reflect the community in Northern Ireland; and
	Whether Roman Catholics are under-represented or over-represented in the senior judiciary in Northern Ireland, distinguishing between the posts of Lord Chief Justice, Lord Justices of Appeal and High Court judges.

Lord Filkin: The reflectiveness of the senior judiciary is not monitored.

Retirement Age

Lord Taylor of Warwick: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What plans they have to raise the retirement age to 70.

Baroness Hollis of Heigham: There is no national statutory retirement age. Many employers set a compulsory retirement age for their employees—typically 60 or 65, but there are variations. The Government have no plans to raise the state pension age beyond changes provided for by the 1995 Pensions Act which will, between the years 2010 to 2020, equalise women's state pension age with that of men at 65.
	The Government's position on state pension age was made clear in the pensions Green Paper—Simplicity, security and choice: Working and saving for retirement. The Government are considering the approach they should take to employers' compulsory retirement ages in legislation to outlaw age discrimination in employment and vocational training when implementing the European Employment Directive.

Electricity Consumption

Baroness Byford: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the annual amount of electricity used by:
	(a) the National Insurance Contributions Office;
	(b) the National Health Service Estates; and
	(c) the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Lord McIntosh of Haringey: National Health Service Estates are not the sole occupiers of buildings and their electricity consumption cannot be assessed.
	In 2003–04, 20.4 million kwh were used at sites on which the National Insurance Contributions Office was the major occupier and 23.39 million kwh at locations where the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was the major occupier.

Depleted Uranium

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What role the Department of Trade and Industry plays in the regulation of the use of depleted uranium.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: The DTI UK Safeguards Office is concerned with the application of international safeguards on civil nuclear material in the UK, including depleted uranium. This involves working with the UK nuclear industry (and others with safeguards reporting requirements) and safeguards inspectors from the European Commission (currently part of the Directorate for Transport and Energy (DG-TREN) and based in Luxembourg) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS) the security regulator, promotes a robust security regime for civil nuclear material. We cannot comment on the security measures taken, which could be of potential use to terrorists.
	Imports of depleted uranium into the United Kingdom do not require the specific approval of the department. All imports of armour-piercing ammunition, whether or not containing depleted uranium, require an individual import licence granted by the department under the Import of Goods (Control) Order 1954. No other product containing depleted uranium requires such an individual import licence.
	Although strategic export controls do not regulate the actual use of depleted uranium, any exports of depleted uranium from the Community are controlled under Council Regulation (EC) No 1334/2000. The DTI is responsible for the licensing of goods controlled by the regulation.

Battery Recycling

Lord Beaumont of Whitley: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What are the next stages towards implementation of the European Union Directive on Batteries (2003/0282 CD); when these are likely to take place; and what steps they are planning to take to implement domestic battery recycling to meet the targets laid down.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: The Government have issued a consultation document seeking views from stakeholders on the Batteries Directive proposal by 5 August 2004. These views will be taken into account as negotiations on the proposal continue within the European Council over the coming months. Collection and recycling targets have yet to be agreed, and it is unlikely that negotiations will be completed until 2005.
	The Government have been actively involved in a pilot battery collection scheme in Bristol involving key stakeholders and are in discussions about establishing other schemes elsewhere. Domestic battery recycling facilities are also likely to be established in the UK.

Lighthouse Vessels

Lord MacKenzie of Culkein: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether permission has been given to the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses and to the Trinity House Lighthouse Service to obtain new vessels; and, if so, what is the estimated in-service date for those vessels.

Lord Davies of Oldham: Ministers have approved proposals to replace three of the general lighthouse authorities' current vessels with two new multi-function tenders (MFTs) and a smaller rapid response vessel. The new MFT's will replace the Trinity House vessel "Mermaid" and the Northern Lighthouse Board vessel "Pharos".
	Invitations to tender to construct the vessels were issued in June. Approval to procure the vessels will be dependent on the cost of the bids received. If agreed, the contract to build is expected to be awarded in October 2004. The vessels are expected to come into service between 2005 and 2007.